Court Records Show That Emails and Phone Data Were Searched in Child Porn Probe of Billionaire Denny

[TexasTowelie]

Court Records Show That Emails and Phone Data Were Searched in Child Porn Probe of Billionaire Denny Sanford


Authorities seized phone, email and internet data in a child pornography investigation of South Dakota’s richest person, T. Denny Sanford, according to court records obtained by ProPublica.

The records, which were kept under seal for more than a year, confirm ProPublica’s reporting from last year on the existence of the investigation. The search warrants were unsealed after a unanimous ruling last month by the South Dakota Supreme Court, which affirmed what ProPublica had argued when it first tried to obtain the records last summer: that search warrants and related documents are available to the public under state law.

No charges have been filed and the status of any investigation is unclear. In a statement, Sanford’s lawyer, Marty Jackley, declined to address Sanford’s underlying conduct. “The ultimate fact remains that the investigating authorities have not found information to support criminal charges,” Jackley said.

It was Jackley, a former state attorney general who is running to reclaim the position in 2022, who asked a judge to stop ProPublica from reporting on the Sanford investigation last year.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/court-records-show-that-emails-and-phone-data-were-searched-in-child-porn-probe-of-billionaire-denny-sanford